4tell™ Solutions [PORTLAND, Maine and TORONTO] announced that Robert “Bobby” Slaton recently joined the Company as its Chief Operating Officer. Bob has over 20 years of increasing responsibility in both the public and private and change management skills.

Digital Realty [SAN FRANCISCO] (NYSE: DLR) announced that Erich Sanchack has been named Executive Vice President, Operations. Erich most recently served as Senior Vice President, IT Solutions and New Market Development at CenturyLink. At CenturyLink, he also held the title of Senior Vice President and General Manager, Federal. Prior to CenturyLink, Sanchack served as an executive at Lockheed Martin for 12 years, where he held various Vice President roles. He was Vice President, Competitive Enhancements, Vice President, Corporate Internal Audit and also served as Vice President, Information Technology Services. Sanchack is a former Captain in the United States Marine Corps, where he served in Finance and Operations and completed multiple overseas deployments.

Genesco Inc. [NASHVILLE, Tenn.] (NYSE: GCO) announced that Mimi Eckel Vaughn, currently the Company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, is to be named chief operating officer of the Company once her successor as chief financial officer is appointed. Vaughn, a 14-year veteran of the Company, joined Genesco as vice president – strategy and business development in 2003, was promoted to senior vice president – strategy and business development in 2006, and was named senior vice president – strategy and shared services in 2009. She assumed her current position in February 2015. Prior to joining the Company, Vaughn was executive vice president of business development and marketing and acting chief financial officer for Link2Gov Corporation in Nashville. From 1993 to 1999, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Before joining McKinsey, Vaughn held corporate finance positions at Goldman Sachs & Co., Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Drexel Burnham Lambert.

All Def Media [LOS ANGELES] has recruited WPP ad sales veteran Brooke Goldstein as co-president and chief operating officer. Goldstein is a highly respected industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience who joins All Def from ESP Properties, North America, where she was head of sales for the WPP division. During the past four years at ESP, she advised numerous companies on their overall market approach, differentiation, creating brand partnerships and tactics for driving sales. Prior to working at WPP, she was senior vice president of sales at The Hub and she also spent 16 years working on the agency side, leading client service, strategy and planning.

UPM Pharmaceuticals [BRISTOL, Tenn] has appointed Chris Curtin as Chief Operating Officer. Curtin was promoted from his previous role as Executive Vice President of Quality Operations. Curtin has held executive management positions at Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, King Pharmaceuticals, Graceway Pharmaceuticals, Rockward Pharmaceutical Consultants, Actient Pharmaceuticals and more recently Lynwood Pharmaceuticals. At King Pharmaceuticals, Curtin was Executive Vice President Quality Operations and at Graceway Pharmaceuticals he served as Executive Vice President Technical Operations.

Jim Benintende

AutoAlert [KANSAS CITY, Mo.] announced that its new COO is long-time Ford Motor Co. executive Jim Benintende. A Ford employee who started on the assembly line, he eventually became the first President of its Middle East and Africa (MEA) business unit. After leading the MEA Business Unit development, Benintende returned to the United States as Ford’s Director of Sales Support. He retired from Ford in December 2016. Benintende worked at Ford from the ground up starting at age 20, as an assembly line worker. From there, he held a series of marketing and sales positions domestically until he was promoted, in 1993, as Sales Manager of Export Operations of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In 2002, Benintende became Managing Director of Ford Middle East and North Africa.

ProAssurance Corporation [BIRMINGHAM, Ala.] (NYSE: PRA) announced that it has promoted Edward L. “Ned” Rand, Jr. to Chief Operating Officer. Rand has served for 13 years as the Chief Financial Officer for ProAssurance and he will continue in that role for the near future.

SHYFT Analytics [WALTHAM, Mass.] announced that Priya (Bhargava) Saprahas been named Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer. Priya is part of SHYFT’s executive team and oversees Product Innovation.Priya joined SHYFT in 2012 and has assumed a variety of leadership roles, most recently as Chief Product Officer. Prior to SHYFT, Priya served as the Head of Analytics for Phreesia, and Vice President of Quantitative Services for MedPanel.

Chris Botting

Selligent [REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and BRUSSELS, Belgium] announced that Chris Botting has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Prior to joining Selligent, Botting was General Manager – Customer Care Technology Group at Cisco. Before joining Cisco in 2000, Botting was a VP and Founder at PakNetX. He also led marketing and product teams at Ericsson, and Multilink, and held product and engineering roles at Nortel early in his career.

Logikcull.com [SAN FRANCISCO] announced that it has hired cloud software executive Patrick Barry as Chief Operating Officer. Barry is leaving his SaaS operational consulting practice to join the company. Previously, he was VP and GM of the Demandforce business at Intuit. Having joined Demandforce as a startup, Patrick was the company’s CMO. Before that, he was a VP and GM at Yahoo!, among other roles in tech startups and investing. He also practiced corporate and securities law at Venture Law Group.

Proskauer [NEW YORK] announced Art Gurwitz has decided to retire from his responsibilities so he can devote more time to his passions for philanthropy and entrepreneurship. Gurwitz will serve as a consultant during 2018 and lead certain special projects for the Firm. Jonathan O’Brien, who currently serves as the Firm’s Chief Financial Officer and was formerly the Global Finance Director at the Boston Consulting Group, will become Proskauer’s new Chief Operating Officer.

Pirooz Parvarandeh

Aquantia Corp. [SAN JOSE, Calif.] (NYSE: AQ) announced the appointment of Pirooz Parvarandehas Chief Operating Officer. With over 33 years of experience, Parvarandeh was formerly the Group President and the first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Maxim Integrated where he spent 27 years.

Premium Retail Services (Premium) [ST. LOUIS] has announced the promotion of Bill Campbellfrom President of Sales and Marketing to Chief Operating. Prior to joining Premium in 2014, Bill was President of U.S. Sales at LeapFrog. Bill has also held leadership roles with LEGO.

HD Vest Financial Services[IRVING, Texas] announced that Crystal Clifford, who has more than 25 years of experience working in the financial services industry, has joined the firm as Chief Operating Officer. Clifford was most recently Senior Vice President of Technology at LPL Financial. Clifford became Senior Vice President of Technology following two years at the helm of LPL Financial’s Product Management organization. Prior to that position, Clifford led multiple departments in LPL Financial’s Operations, Trading & Service organization over the course of 12 years. Before Clifford joined LPL Financial in 1999, she held various roles, including Assistant Vice President of Accounting at Scripps Bank.

Envoy [CHICAGO] announced that Manu S. Sivanandam will be joining the company as its new Chief Operating Officer. Prior to assuming the COO role at Envoy, Sivanandam served as vice president of marketing and strategy at Upright Law and vice president of customer marketing and business operations at Orbitz Worldwide. He was also a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

RadMax Technologies, Inc. [SPOKANE, Wash.] announced that Michael Urso has accepted the interim position of Chief Operating Officer (COO), and will be transitioning into the role and title of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) later this year. Prior to taking this position, Urso served as the Vice President of Product Innovation for Saint-Gobain’s North American Gypsum business. During his extensive career Mike has also held leadership positions as Senior Principal Consultant, Sirti; Vice President of Marketing, Potlatch Corporation, Wood Products and Resource Management Divisions; Global New Business Development Manager and Global Composite Materials Project Manager, Dow Chemical Company, Emulsion Polymers Division; Operations Manager, Dow Chemical, Chemical and Metals Divisions; North American Marketing Manager, Dow Chemical, Emulsion Polymers Division; and Canadian Marketing Manager, Dow Chemical, Emulsion Polymers Division.

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